Hartford Woman Charged In Connection With Attempted Rape Of Baby Faces New Charges

March 05, 2013|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD — A woman charged in connection with the attempted sexual assault of an 18-month-old child in Vernon was charged Tuesday with similar crimes by Hartford police.

Candace Merriam, 47, was charged by Hartford police with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault on a minor, two counts of illicit sexual contact with a minor, risk of injury to a minor, fourth-degree sexual assault and attempted fourth-degree sexual assault.

Merriam was charged along with Jay T. Mohler-Avery, a nurse practitioner who had a practice in Vernon, with trying to sexually assault the 18-month-old.

Hartford police began an investigation because some of the alleged crimes Vernon police uncovered reportedly occurred in Hartford.

Hartford Superior Court Judge Joan K. Alexander set Merriam's bail at $250,000 and told her the cases against her would likely be consolidated, perhaps in Rockville, where the crimes are alleged to have occurred.

Mohler-Avery, 44, of Hartford, remains in custody with bail set at $1 million since his Oct. 28 arrest on charges of criminal attempt to commit both first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury. He also was charged with conspiring to commit the crimes.

Mohler-Avery worked at a family practice called CT Family Care LLC at the Vernon Professional Building, 281 Hartford Turnpike.

Mohler-Avery and Merriam were arrested after they allegedly tried to take delivery of an 18-month-old girl so Mohler-Avery could sexually assault her, according to court files.

Mohler-Avery believed he had persuaded one of his patients to move into his Hartford home with her four daughters so they could all become his sex slaves, the records and police say. The woman is 32 and her children are 9, 6, 3 and 18 months.

In exchange, Mohler-Avery offered to provide for the woman and her daughters for the rest of their lives. He planned to eventually move them from his Hartford home, which is in foreclosure, to what he called his "compound" in Maine, according to court records.

He first wanted to have sexual contact with the 18-month-old, the warrant states, so he could "break her in early."

Police had been investigating Mohler-Avery for about two weeks and had audio recordings of some of his conversations with the woman when they set in motion a sting operation.

Vernon detectives had the woman agree to turn over the child in Vernon. Officers were waiting as Merriam, who lived and worked with Mohler-Avery, arrived in Mohler-Avery's pickup truck to pick up the child. Police were waiting, and arrested her.

Mohler-Avery was arrested about the same time at his home in Hartford.

Merriam told police she'd met Mohler-Avery in Augusta, Maine, and had known him for about six years. She said Mohler-Avery had sent her to pick up the 18-month-old, but she insisted she did not know why. She did acknowledge she was present when the woman and Mohler-Avery talked about his interest in sexually assaulting the child, according to the court file.

She was charged with conspiracy to commit both first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.